Sporting Kansas City will begin a highly anticipated three-game homestand on Friday with an 8 p.m. kickoff against FC Dallas at Sporting Park.
Gates will open at 6 p.m. and the first 10,000 fans will receive a Sporting KC T-shirt.
Friday’s match will be nationally televised on UniMas and Univision Deportes Network with commentary available in both English (via SAP) and Spanish. KMCI-TV 38 the Spot will also provide three hours of coverage for local viewers beginning at 7:30 p.m. CT, along with a simulcast on Sports Radio 810 WHB and a Spanish-language broadcast on La Grande 1340 AM.
Sporting Kansas City enters the encounter just three points back of FC Dallas for second place in the Western Conference thanks to a five-game unbeaten streak that has included road results at both conference leaders and back-to-back home victories. The club’s two losses are fewest in MLS and only the historic 2000 season saw the team start a year with fewer defeats through 12 games.
However, Sporting KC suffered one of those losses at the hands of FC Dallas in a 3-1 setback at Toyota Stadium in Week 2. Blas Perez scored twice and leads FC Dallas with five goals in 2015, while Fabian Castillo recorded his first of four goals and five assists this season.
Both charter clubs of Major League Soccer since the inaugural 1996 season, Sporting Kansas City and FC Dallas have split the 50 all-time regular season meetings with identical 20-20-10 records in the series. Friday is the second of three meetings this season and the match-up comes amidst contrasting circumstances for the two clubs.
Sporting Kansas City begins a three-game homestand with their next two matches coming against the top two teams in the MLS power rankings, followed by a I-70 showdown with St. Louis FC in the U.S. Open Cup. The team is unbeaten (3-0-3) at home this season but lists nine players on this week’s injury report after failing to field a full 18-player gameday roster in each of the past two matches.
FC Dallas, meanwhile, continues a five-game MLS road trip – the longest in team history – that began with a 2-1 loss in Montreal last Saturday. Manager Oscar Pareja signed Panamanian midfielder Rolando Escobar earlier this week and the team’s lone absence will be homegrown midfielder Kellyn Acosta, who is with Sporting KC defender Erik Palmer-Brown and the U.S. Under-20 Men’s National Team in New Zealand for the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
In-game updates will be available at SportingKC.com/GameOn, via Twitter courtesy of @SKCGameday and through the Sporting Club Uphoria mobile app.
Following Friday’s match at Sporting Park, all fans are invited to “Sporting Kansas City Extra Time” at Turn 2 Sports Bar and Restaurant inside nearby Hollywood Casino for a watch party. The United States’ opening match of the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup will be shown at 11 p.m. on FOX Sports 1 and Elite DJ will provide musical entertainment.
For tonight’s game at Sporting Park, a limited number of tickets, including standing room only tickets, are available online at Ticketmaster.com or at the stadium box offices on gameday while supplies last.